Re: Royalties from TECHWR-L ???

[aer -at- PCSI -dot- CIRRUS -dot- COM]

There may be some "netiquette" issues involved
here, and even if such assumptions/precedents are
not explicit, there are plenty of counter-examples
to suggest that the contents of newsgroups, listservs
and such are being archived, made available for viewing,
and hence [implicitly] for anyone to copy ad libitum...

my point being that this is happening all over the
net now and is only likely to increase. If someone tries
to sue over the "unauthorized" archiving, compilation
or redistribution of their deathless prose in the posts
and comments made to a listserv or newsgroup, then
I'd bet heavily that the outcome will be a rejection of
the right of any one individual to stopper the established
"precedent" or modus operandi of so many groups, lists,
etc.

Yeah, I've seen book reviews plastered with copyright
notices, requiring permission to redistribute, but unless
a suit is brought to enforce some well-defined parameters,
what's to prevent us millions of readers from culling what
we want from anywhere and drawing upon it -- as long as I
don't profit from plagiarizing another's "published" work?
Sharing info on the net so far has not been profitable as such.

Would my paraphrase of info, for example, about some topic
or even a solution to a problem be grounds, in court,
for a lawsuit claiming damages because I infringed on
someone's proprietary territory? I seriously doubt it...

If not, and the litigious among us want to pursue it, there
are gazillions of potential lawsuits just waiting to happen.

You dassn't open yer mouth, or pen an e-mail msg, to
opine on any subject, if you could realistically be sued
over it, eh?

Al Rubottom  /\  tel: 619.535.9505, x1737
aer -at- pcsi -dot- cirrus -dot- com /\ fax: 619.541.2260